


Can We Burn Something, Babe?

by SilverServerError



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Candlenights, M/M, some would be dubcon that is immediately discussed and navigated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 15:19:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13033938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverServerError/pseuds/SilverServerError
Summary: For someone like Taako, there’s nothing quite as romantic as plausible deniability.





	Can We Burn Something, Babe?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the song prompt Love on The Brain by Rihanna.

Brad smiled, satisfied and fond as he watched the last of his coworkers leave the party. It had been a wonderful night, full of laughter and comradery as HR met one last time before the Candlenights break. He let his weight settle against the doorframe, arms crossed over his sweater and thoughts drifting happily until the voices of the last little trio faded out of earshot. They’d offered to help him clean up but…

Brad at last closed the door, turning back to the empty party.

There was something about the ambiance he wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to yet. It was too warm. Too familiar.

The decorations on the wall. The small, perhaps tacky disco ball making lights spin slowly around the room. Forgotten plates and red solo cups littering the tables around the edges of the impromptu dance floor as a reminder of all the excited conversations and casual bonding his team had just enjoyed. At the record player, Taako was daintily resetting the needle with the same hand in which he held a glass of champagne. In the fireplace, the flames were only barely starting to-

Brad did a double take.

“Taako?”

The elf glanced back and gave a wink as he lowered the needle. The music scratched to life, a gentle, nostalgic ballad. One Brad hadn't heard before. Certainly not one he had brought to the party.

“Happy Candlenights, big guy.”

Brad smiled, watching Taako’s artful casualness from across the room. Taking in the cape, the heels, the sequins. The light they threw on the walls. “How long have you been here?”

“A while. You nerds party harder than I thought you would.”

“You could have joined in.”

Taako glanced up at him from under long lashes and sharp eyeliner. His voice dipped, low and warm. “Didn’t come here to see them, Bradson.”

And that was enough. Enough to cause an ache in his chest and a slow heat between his thighs. “No?”

Taako eyed him, the tension slowly pulling tighter, as without a word, Taako used Mage Hand to lock the door and dim the lights. With the easy touch of his real hand, fingers long and lithe, he turned the volume dial up a few more degrees.

Unable to stay away any longer, Brad started to approach. Taako, giving in, did the same.

There was something…

About the song.

About Taako’s intense expression.

About the low lights catching and scattering across the room.

Something that hit Brad so deeply.

As much as he wanted Taako… To kiss him and hold him and sweep him off his feet and into his bed… (or the wall or the table or the hearth before the fire…)

There was something important, something deeper happening here. Something dangerously close to what his heart so desperately wanted.

As they finally reached each other, Brad hesitated, almost in trepidation. Taako stared at him and took another small sip. Something in the gesture seemed anxious, like he was drinking it for courage.

“Taako?” he asked softly.

In answer, Taako wrapped his free hand in his tie. Once. Twice. Then pulled Brad down for a slow and filthy kiss. Brad moaned as he melted into it. Taako didn’t let him go as the backs of the knuckles of his other hand started wandering… down his shoulder… across his chest… teasing a nipple ring through two layers of respectable cotton.

“Ahh...”

“Mmm!” Taako just shoved his tongue deeper.

Brad let his hands shift, tracing up thighs and palming Taako’s ass with both hands, rocking forward to let the elf feel him.

They kept going, only slowly easing out of it, burning lungs forcing them to pull apart.

“Mmhmm? What is it, my man?” Taako’s voice was breathless.

“What is…” It took Brad a moment to gaze down at bright eyes and full lips before he could remember. “What- What are you drinking?” he asked with a hard swallow, straining for something casual. Anything beside what his pounding heart wanted to actually say.

Taako breathed in but couldn’t answer, staring at his glass like it was the first time he’d noticed it, ears flicking up and back every few seconds, giving him entirely away as he tried to think of how to answer.

“Taako,” he said again softly, hands easing out from under the skirt, but settling again over the elf’s hips, pulling them together and letting his hands rub him the same way he always did when things got too intense in bed. He kissed Taako’s temple, his cheek, his jaw… As he pulled away to look down at him again, a small warmth sprang to life in his chest. Taako’s ears settled, giving away just how much Brad had the power to calm him. “I’m sure I didn’t have the budget for anything that nice at the party. I would have remembered.”

“No,” Taako agreed, gazing at the sparkling, bubbling drink in his hand, still sounding a little… somewhere else. “No, I would say you didn’t.”

And there was… a touch of some inflection. Some suggestive…

For the first time, Brad gave the glass a serious look. “Taako…” he asked, suddenly thinking he might be catching on. “Taako is this…?”

“Kinda slow for a bard, Brad.”

 

“May I?”

Taako licked a lip, offering his drink nervously. “Careful. Check it first. It’s strong.”

Brad let one hand settle low across the small of Taako’s back, holding him close as the other carefully took the glass, grip wrapping around where Taako’s warm hand still held it, and raised it so he could close his eyes and smell the fumes.

He knew Taako had a penchant for this sort of thing. Calm Emotion in his shots and Hypnotic Pattern in his weed. It wasn’t something Brad usually liked to mix, but he supposed the elf had the advantage of an extra hundred years to learn his limits.

He could feel something there… Arcane energy that caressed against his senses, gentle and warm and slowly coming into focus as-

“Taako,” Brad said, eyes snapping open and staring at the far wall over the glass as his stomach started pulling into a knot. He took a breath and forced himself to look down and meet his eye. “Charm Person?”

“Yeah?” Taako asked in a tiny voice, ears drooping and burying his face against Brad’s holiday sweater.

“Did you start drinking this before or after you decided you wanted to see me tonight?”

Taako murmured and squirmed against him.

He let Taako’s hand go, then with a gentle but firm grip, held him by the upper arms, pulling him away just far enough he could see his face. “Please. Taako, it’s important I know.”

“After!” Taako cried out indignantly. “I mean I didn’t even bother until everyone had left. It’s not fun unless…” He trailed off, frowning at the floor, both hands holding the narrow stem of the glass.

Brad felt terrible upsetting him, but… But with that slightly off look in his eye. That defenseless affection that he usually only got out of Taako after round two or three…

“Are Merle and Magnus in tonight?” he asked gently, threading a few fingers through his hair. “Maybe I should take you back home.”

The reaction was immediate.

“No!” Taako clutched to him harder, “Please let me stay, Brad!”

And oh gods, that’s what he’d wanted to hear for so long now. But not like this. He did his best to soothe him, hands petting down his sides and murmuring soft magic-laced words of comfort. “It’s okay. Taako, it’s okay. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I’m just trying to understand.” Brad gently moved them to one of the tables, clearing away some cups and plates, picking Taako up and setting him back down on it so they could be closer to eye level.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Taako assured him earnestly, hands fisted in the thick cable knit of his sweater. “I just- Sometimes I get nervous around you. I wanted to have a good time tonight. I didn’t want to mess anything up.”

Brad leaned in, kissing his hairline, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “Shh… Taako, it’s okay. You haven’t messed up anything.”

“Please don’t make me go back.”

“We’re not going anywhere.”

Taako nuzzled against him, then found his lips, kissing desperately. Brad let him, kissing back firm and reassuring. Until they were both breathless. Both buzzing with the contact. Much more docile now, Taako slumped against him, arms wrapped around Brad’s neck. Brad pet down his back, his hand almost big enough to span from one side all the way to the other.

“Taako,” Brad began again gently, when it felt like they were back on solid ground. “You know I- That I enjoy our time together. You don’t need to charm me to get me to spend the night with you.”

Taako said nothing, just hugged him tighter.

“So I’m wondering if you feel like _you_ need to-“

“That’s not…” Taako began, cutting him off, then devolved into murmurs against his shoulder.

“Taako, can you say that a little louder please?” Brad asked gently, shifting him a little and petting a calming hand back from Taako’s temple, careful to avoid the back-pressed ears. “I’d like to listen and understand.”

Taako huffed, put upon and still hiding behind the glass like a the world’s most fragile shield. “That’s not how it works. It’s not just a blanket… Like I can still say ‘no’. And you can too, if you drink it. For sure. It’s more like…” He made a face and avoided his gaze. “It’s not about sex. It’s about like, the other stuff.”

“Other stuff?” Brad prompted gently.

“Yeah,” Taako said with a frown, ears pressing even further down, looking even further away. “Like, the stupid corny shit.”

Oh.

“Things like,” Brad said carefully, eyes narrowing as he began to understand, “how beautiful your eyes look in firelight?”

Taako’s ears flicked up instantly, and he looked back up at him with those wide eyes again. Brad could see the effect of the spell, dark pupils and flushed cheeks, but now that he understood what it was, and why Taako had done it…

Well, it was kind of cute really. He’d really rather take a potion than just admit he liked the praise? How adorably stubborn.

And more than that, Taako knowing what this potion would do, and deciding he wanted it.

That felt…

Did that make this all… real?

Or all the more cruelly fake?

Brad kissed him deeply once more. “Things like how effortlessly stunning you are? How good it feels to hold you?”

Taako grinned up at him, going absolutely red, but not biting back with some retort like he might normally do.

“You’re such a nerd, Brad.” It almost sounded like a compliment.

“I think you like it.”

“It’s possible,” Taako smiled, pulling him down for another kiss.

Brad gently took the glass from his hand, setting it on the table before laying Taako back. Taako went willingly, legs spreading in invitation and biting his bottom lip in eager shyness. Brad kissed him slow, heavy, thorough. Cradling his thighs as Taako wrapped his legs around his hips and pulled him closer.

“Fuck, Taako,” he groaned lowly, sucking down his neck, careless of the bruises when all it took was a whisper to make them disappear again. Taako whined softly, crossing his wrists above his head. As always, Brad obliged, taking them both in one tight grip.

“Brad,” he sighed, voice still that extra touch mellow. “Brad you should drink, too.”

He paused, gathering himself… his breath… his mind. And with a kiss to a bruise at his pulse point, he finally pulled back again, looking down at Taako, trying to read what he wanted, what he needed.

“Why should I?”

Taako just smiled up at him sweetly. “It feels good, my man.” He grinned wider. “Feels really fucking good.”

Brad laughed, light and fond. “Any night I spend with you feels good, Taako.”

“Yeah but…” Taako squeezed his legs, then seemed delighted and distracted with the sensation it gave both of them for long moments. “Please?” He asked again sweetly, looking up at him through a cloud of bliss. “I got it just for us.”

Brad took a deep breath, closing his eyes, then bent down to kiss his sternum before opening them again. “If I do, we can’t have sex tonight.”

Taako looked up at him, confused, but trying to be reassuring. “No, really. Brad, it’s okay. I feel totally-“

But he was silenced with a soft kiss. “No, Taako. I mean for my sake.”

His ears pressed flat as his mouth fell open. “Oh!” Taako seemed to realize. “Oh, yes. Of course,” he reached up, thin fingers petting his cheeks and chin. “I understand. No pressure.”

Brad laughed softly to himself. “Are you sure? You’re usually more… vocal about your frustration.” Especially when he was already hard and grinding when they decided to stop.

“Just drink it,” Taako said, teasing with his voice, as well as the touch to Brad’s bottom lip, finding the familiar smooth surface of a fang. “You’ll see.”

Brad smiled, but reached out, and with a few butterflies in his stomach, drank the bottom of the glass like a shot. Taako gasped in soft delight and he had just enough time to wonder when it would kick in before it did.

Hard.

His eyes snapped down to Taako. Gaze wide and just… staring. At how achingly beautiful he looked. At the soft awe and reverence. At the flickering of fire light and a disco ball across his features. His whole body flooded with love. Adoration for the elf vulnerable and obedient beneath him.

“Oh,” Brad breathed.

“Yeah.”

“Fuck.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Taako, I-“

“Shhh…” Taako silenced him with a finger against his lips. “I know what you want to say, because that’s the first thing everyone wants to say their first time.” Brad’s eyes went wide, but Taako pressed on, grounding and supportive.”But trust me when I say you shouldn’t, okay?”

Brad closed his eyes, feeling like his love for Taako could break through and flood any moment. But he did as he was told, moaning instead as he forced his lips shut, letting them drag across Taako’s finger.

Taako pulled him down and they were kissing once more. It felt different than before, and certainly different than normal. It was slow, and it had to be, given they way oversensitive nerves sprang to life at the barest of touches. He was turned on. They both were. And yet at the same time, that part of his body felt a million miles away. Someone else's problem.

His hands ran down Taako’s throat, his chest, his stomach and thighs. The elf writhed and moaned beneath him. Brad licked careful and hot up a long ear, and that was the final straw before Taako pushed him away.

Brad pulled away at once, settling against the table at his side, close, but giving him space.

For his part, Taako just stared at the ceiling, watching wide-eyed as the disco ball spun and the sequins of his clothing bounced lights that bobbed with his own panting.

“Are you…” Brad began, watching him carefully.

Taako ran both hands down his own face, forcing himself to breathe a little slower. “Mmhmm. Just… need a second.”

“Of course.” Brad reached out and let the back of a hand rest against Taako’s upper arm. A tiny, but reassuring contact. Taako first gasped, then relaxed even further. At length, he finally turned his head and met Brad’s gaze. “This stuff is…”

“Yeah,” Brad agreed softly.

And for a time, a very, very long time, all they could do was look into each other’s eyes. Study the other’s face. Finding each other beautiful and perfect and painfully fond.

“Taako?”

“Mmhmm?”

“May I come a little closer?”

All Taako could do was nod, and Brad let himself obey the longing his body felt to touch him. Taako wrapped his arms around Brad’s shoulders, playing with his hairline as he settled against his shoulder, using him like a pillow. At his waist Brad’s hand disappeared under his shirt to start petting up and down at soothing Intervals.

“Listen, my man,” Taako said lazily, “you can take that hand a little further south if you know what I mean.”

Brad did so, cupping his hip through tight fabric and letting his thumb tease the curve of his bone there, but that’s as far as he went. He leaned up to kiss Taako’s neck. “I meant it about no sex,” he reminded him gently.

Taako’s ear hit the top of Brad’s head as it flicked down, and Brad pulled away with fond laugh.

“Ah, sorry dude,“ Taako said a little sheepishly, eyes wide, adoring and compliant. “It’s easy to forget sometimes.”

Brad nodded.

“Thanks for stopping us.”

Brad just hummed, bringing his hand up to play with his waist again. With a smile he repeated one of his rules of thumb, said so often it was more of a mantra than anything else. “It’s important to respect boundaries.”

Taako sighed contentedly, then tried to push up to his elbows, only managing it with one side as Brad was weighing down the other with kisses to his neck and shoulder. He took stock of the room. The music still playing from the record player. The fire crackling in the corner.

The telling shape pushing up at his skirt.

“Hatchimatchi,” he groaned, with a rueful little smile. At that, Brad did pull away, recognizing the word for what it was and carefully looking him over again.

“Are you okay?” He asked gently.

Taako’s long legs drew together, knees bending and thighs pressed tight and he reached down. As if holding the hem of his sparkling skirt to his legs might offer a modicum of modesty. He looked away, ears down and a soft blush across his nose and cheeks.

Brad smiled, somehow proud to see it, as always. Gods how he’d like to take those knees in hand. Spread those thighs open. Suck Taako until he came down his throat or chin. But it was a dull warmth, not a sharp need. He leaned in to kiss Taako’s neck. “It’s alright,” He soothed, lips against his skin. “I’m the same.”

Taako glanced down between Brad’s legs, frowning and glancing back up.

Brad took Taako’s chin in his hands (and there was part of Taako that just wanted to melt with obedience every time he held him like that), and kissed him with a soft, fond smile. “Don’t pout. I take longer. You know that.”

“That’s fucking cheating,” Taako insisted with a small moan, nipping at Brad’s lower lip.

Brad laughed softly, “I think it’s just biology.” Then he stood back up, cradling Taako’s head and the small of his back as he pulled him to sitting against him. “Taako?”

“Yeah?”

“May I have this dance?”

Taako just stared at him. Where normally he’d be laughing, his eyes got huge and his ears flicked down. “Yes!” he said, fighting to keep his voice steady and his eyes dry.

Brad leaned in to kiss him again, unable to do anything else, then slowly pulled away to offer a hand. Taako looked at it, then slowly put his own in Brad’s.

(“So big…” he whispered.

“So small.”)

Brad lead them to the fireplace, radiant heat warming them as he wrapped his arms around Taako’s waist and started swaying them side to side in time with the ballad. Taako melted into the embrace, head pillowed against his chest, one hand at his shoulder and the other resting in the crook of Brad’s elbow.

“Brad…”

“Mmm.”

Then, a little more pressing, “Brad, I-!”

Brad leaned down to silence him with a kiss. Moving slow and tender, but dominate. Not letting him pull away until the elf’s breathing had evened a bit.

“B-Brad?”

He pulled away, teasing their noses together. “It’s better if you don’t say it,” he echoed softly.

At that Taako froze, realizing what he had almost done. Brad did the same, watching him carefully.

“Ah man, must be… must be a strong one, huh?”

Brad could see how thin the excuse was, but for the sake of their precarious arrangement, let it slide. “Must be.”

“I think it…” Taako furrowed his brow, as if trying to reason through a fog. “Sorry, i'm not usually like this. I think it must hit harder if you actually kind of-“

And at that, Taako stopped dead in his tracks. Brad felt a shard of panic shoot through him, but forced himself to remain calm.

They’re whole… situation. It depended on not talking about things like this. On not admitting-

“I want to go home.”

Taako wouldn’t look at him, and honestly, Brad couldn’t blame him.

“Okay.”

It felt… on one level, he was screaming to say it. To tell Taako how precious and dear he was to him. But that was the same compulsion that had his eyes wide and his body feeling fuzzy.

Another part of himself, the one he both thanked and hated for taking control, was assuring him that just as Taako wasn’t ready to say it, he wasn’t ready to hear it.

Why did Brad always do this? Go for the most out-of-his-league guy in the room and then panic when it started to work out?

“It was probably just a bad batch, Taako,” Brad tried again, as much for his own sake. “You know how weird things can get when Charm Person goes wrong.”

He watched Taako, starting to relax by degrees. “That’s… That’s true. I guess. People say all sorts of dumb shit. Doesn’t mean anything.”

Brad slowly let his hands start rubbing up and down his arms again. “Exactly.”

“Brad?”

“Mmhmm?”

“Do you mind walking me home?”

It was so hesitant, it almost had him aching. “Of course not.”

It was short work to get him ready. The room was left a mess, but he could come back after Taako was home safely to deal with it.

As they stepped out into the night, Taako reached out a hand. Brad took it, for a moment reassured by the gesture. Then he realized Taako was casing invisibility over the both of them, saving a spell slot on the technicality of the touch.

Even so, it still meant they were holding hands. Maybe deep down, that’s what Taako really wanted. Maybe it was just another in a long line of excuses.

 


End file.
